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Frances McDormand
| birth_place = Gibson City, Illinois, U.S. | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1982–present | education = * Bethany College, West Virginia * Yale University | spouse = | residence = New York, New York, U.S. | children = 1 | awards = Full list }} Frances Louise McDormand (born Cynthia Ann Smith, June 23, 1957) is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award, making her one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. McDormand was educated at Bethany College and Yale University. She has starred in a number of films by the Coen brothers, including Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Fargo (1996), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), Burn After Reading (2008), and Hail, Caesar! (2016). For playing Marge Gunderson in Fargo, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her other film roles include Mississippi Burning (1988), Almost Famous (2000), and North Country (2005), all earning her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2017, she starred as a hardened woman seeking justice for her daughter's murder in the crime-drama film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which won her a second Academy Award for Best Actress. McDormand made her Broadway debut in a 1984 revival of the drama Awake and Sing!, and received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her acclaimed performance as Stella Kowalski in a 1988 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. She returned to Broadway in 2008 with a revival of The Country Girl, leading to a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Play. In 2011, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for playing a troubled single mother in Good People. On television, McDormand played the titular protagonist in the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge (2014), which won her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress. Early life McDormand was born Cynthia Ann Smith in Gibson City, Illinois. She was adopted at one and a half years of age by Noreen (Nickelson) and Vernon McDormand and renamed Frances Louise McDormand. Her adoptive mother was a nurse and receptionist while her adoptive father was a Disciples of Christ pastor; both were originally from Canada. McDormand has said that her biological mother, to whom she proudly referred, along with herself, as "white trash," may have been one of the parishioners at Vernon's church. She has a sister, Dorothy A. "Dot" McDormand, who is an ordained Disciples of Christ minister and chaplain, as well as another sibling, both of whom were adopted by the McDormands, who had no biological children. Because her father specialized in restoring congregations, he frequently moved their family, and they lived in several small towns in Illinois, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, before settling in Monessen, Pennsylvania, where McDormand graduated from Monessen High School in 1975. She attended Bethany College in West Virginia, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in theater in 1979. In 1982, she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama. She was a roommate of actress Holly Hunter while living in New York City. Career McDormand's first professional acting job was in Derek Walcott's play In a Fine Castle also known as The Last Carnival, which was funded by the MacArthur Foundation and performed in Trinidad. In 1984 she made her film debut in Blood Simple, the first film by the Coen brothers. In 1987, she appeared as the wacky friend Dot in Raising Arizona, starring Holly Hunter and Nicolas Cage. In addition to her early film roles, McDormand played Connie Chapman in the fifth season of the television police drama Hill Street Blues. In 1988, she played Stella Kowalski in a stage production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. McDormand is an associate member of the experimental theater company The Wooster Group. In 2002, "the game and talented" McDormand performed as Oenone in the Wooster Group's production of an "exhilarating dissection" of Racine's tragedy Phèdre entitled "To You, the Birdie!," at Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York.Ben Brantley (2002). "Theater Review: Racine's Pale Queen, Struggling With Racket Sports". The New York Times. February 19, 2002. After appearing in several theatrical and television roles during the 1980s, McDormand gradually gained renown and critical acclaim for her dramatic work in film. Imagine Fashion. Interview with Frances McDormand (2011). In 1988, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Mississippi Burning. Cast alongside Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe, McDormand was singled out for praise, with Sheila Benson, in her review for the Los Angeles Times, writing, "Hackman's mastery reaches a peak here, but McDormand soars right with him. And since she is the film's sole voice of morality, it's right that she is so memorable." In 1996, she won her first Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as a pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson in Fargo, written and directed by the Coen brothers.[http://www.theuncool.com/journalism/frances-mcdormand-interview-magazine/ Cameron Crowe, Frances McDormand interview, Interview Magazine, October 2000.] Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert called Fargo "one of the best films I've ever seen" and felt that McDormand "should have a lock on an Academy Award nomination with this performance, which is true in every individual moment, and yet slyly, quietly, over the top in its cumulative effect." In 2000, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her portrayal of an overbearing mother in Almost Famous. For her role in Wonder Boys (2000), she won Best Supporting Actress from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Florida Film Critics Circle, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. In 2006, McDormand received her fourth nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in North Country (2005). The same year she won an Independent Spirit Award for her supporting role in Nicole Holofcener's dark comedy Friends with Money (2006). She also voiced the role of the principal Melanie Upfoot in the Simpsons episode "Girls Just Want to Have Sums", which aired on April 30, 2006. In 2008, McDormand starred in the films Burn After Reading and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. She then appeared in the action movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon, playing the US government's National Intelligence Director, alongside her Burn After Reading co-star John Malkovich. She returned to the stage in the David Lindsay-Abaire play Good People, in a limited engagement on Broadway from February 8, 2011 to May 29, 2011.Jones, Kenneth." 'Good People', Play of Aspiration and Escape, With Frances McDormand and Tate Donovan, Begins on Broadway" Playbill, February 8, 2011Jones, Kenneth."Broadway's 'Good People' Gets Final Extension, Shifting Dates of 'Master Class Playbill, March 22, 2011 Her performance earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.Jones, Kenneth and Gans, Andrew."2011 Tony Nominations Announced; 'Book of Mormon' Earns 14 Nominations" playbill.com, May 3, 2011 In the animated film Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012), she voiced Capitain Chantel Dubois and also sang a version of the French song "Non, je ne regrette rien". McDormand starred in Promised Land with Matt Damon, filmed in April 2012 and released on December 28, 2012. In November 2014, HBO telecast a four-part mini-series based upon the series of short stories by Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge, co-produced by and starring McDormand. The role won her the Primetime Emmy Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. With her Emmy win, McDormand became the 12th actress in history to achieve the "Triple Crown of Acting", for competitive Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award wins in the acting categories. McDormand starred in the 2017 film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, for which she won her second Academy Award for Best Actress (her statuette was stolen briefly following the awards ceremony), the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. In 2019, McDormand played God in Good Omens. Personal life McDormand has been married to director Joel Coen since 1984, and they adopted a son from Paraguay, Pedro McDormand Coen, in 1995. They live in New York City and also own a residence in Bolinas, California. Filmography Awards and nominations See also * List of actors with Academy Award nominations * List of actors with two or more Academy Awards in acting categories * List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories * List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees References External links * * * }} Category:1957 births Category:Living people Category:Actresses from Chicago Category:American film actresses Category:American stage actresses Category:American television actresses Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners Category:Best Actress Empire Award winners Category:Bethany College (West Virginia) alumni Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:Independent Spirit Award winners Category:People from Monessen, Pennsylvania Category:Yale School of Drama alumni Category:American adoptees Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:Tony Award winners Category:20th-century American actresses Category:21st-century American actresses Category:Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead winners Category:American voice actresses Category:Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners Category:Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:People from Gibson City, Illinois Category:People from Ford County, Illinois Category:Best Actress BAFTA Award winners